Lack of Qualified Workers
Strains Mining Companies

SYDNEY, Australia -- The world's mining sector faces a critical labor shortage at a time when global demand for commodities is running high -- helping push up prices and limiting the supply of raw materials for products from mobile phones to jet engines and kitchen sinks.

Like oil, commodities have been in heavy demand amid hunger for consumer products world-wide and in fast-growing markets such as China and India. Both those nations...